Shaquille O’Neal is officially putting the FTX saga behind him.
The retired basketball icon O’Neal has agreed to pay a large sum to settle a class-action lawsuit related to the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX, Michelle Chapman of the Associated Press reported on Friday. O’Neal will be paying $1.8 million in order to settle the lawsuit.
Chapman adds that O’Neal agreed back in April to the proposed settlement, which will pertain only to him and in which he is not acknowledging any wrongdoing. However, the payment amount and other proposed terms were just disclosed earlier this week in a filing with a U.S. District Court in Miami, Fla.
A court still needs to sign off on the agreement, under which O’Neal would be making payment within 30 days of finalization in exchange for a broad release from future claims. A provision in the settlement also holds that O’Neal cannot seek reimbursement from the FTX estate. You can read Chapman’s full report on the situation here.
The Basketball Hall of Famer O’Neal was one of several big-name celebrities who endorsed FTX prior to its demise. But FTX, once the third-largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume in the world, went bankrupt in 2022 amid an alleged mishandling of an estimated $8 billion in customer deposits. Its founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, has since been sentenced to 25 years in prison for fraud, money laundering, and other related charges.
As for O’Neal, who was among the likes of Tom Brady, Steph Curry, and other A-list sports figures named in the class-action lawsuit, he had some prior drama related to the FTX suit after allegedly evading legal service of the complaint for several months. Eventually, O’Neal was successfully served with the papers while on assignment with TNT at a 2023 NBA playoff game, resulting in a big scene. But now once a court signs off on the proposed settlement, O’Neal will be able to pay up and move past the entire mess.
